Cookery Maven Blog

We went for an excursion on Friday afternoon to Hermit Island— one of the many benefits of living in Bayfield. As we headed to the boat landing, which was choked with two enormous ice bergs, I felt so very lucky to live in a place where we can decide to go for a boat ride and in 30 minutes, be buzzing towards the Madeline Island shoreline. I had a feeling we'd see eagles so I grabbed my 70-200 mm lens and hopped in the boat.

We hugged the Madeline Island shoreline because it was seriously cold on the water, I'm talking ice water cold....makes sense given the icebergs bobbing around. We pointed the Karl towards the leeward side of Hermit, the bracing cold breeze was a little much for us and we wanted to explore the beach.

Hermit Island a sweet island, small enough to explore in an afternoon. The shoreline is full of rocky outcroppings of brownstone (there were quarries operating on the island from the 1860's to the 1890's) and, thanks to our late spring, the trees weren't fully leafed out so I was able to keep my eyes on the eagle who stayed about 100 yards ahead of as we motored along.

A pile of brownstone that never left the island.

As we got closer to the beach, the eagle got tired of our shenanigans and flew off for good. We walked the beach, found pink and purple beach glass, a heart shaped rock and a tightly coiled piece of birch bark— just another beautiful day in a lifetime of beautiful days near Lake Superior.